Fringe Space: Makavan 008 - Raid

Treachery and treason - there's always an excuse for it.
And when I find the reason, I still can't get used to it.
- Dire Straits, Private Investigations

New Hope, Late April '01: Raid

It was late at night by the time Makavan worked out which warehouse Crezzi was being held in. It had to be one that fit a particular narrow set of criteria; in Little Hisha, not currently in use but also not derelict, that kind of thing. There were five that matched his search, and he got lucky on the the fourth try.

Setup: Tokens - Two Hour Wargames. Board - Loke Battlemats.

Approaching the warehouse cautiously, Makavan could see a female basic pacing near Crezzi, who was tied up and seated on a chair with his back to a shelving unit full of boxes. Judging by the arm movements, she was haranguing him; he was too far away to hear the debate, but close enough to see she had a pistol drawn - all the better to threaten him with, no doubt. Makavan wasn't especially stealthy in his approach, but the woman was equally slapdash at keeping watch, so he half-crouched, half-ran up to the edge of the loading bay and poked his head carefully over the concrete lip. She must have heard something, as she was peering out into the darkness, so he carefully ducked back.

Unseen by either of them, Adrasaia the razor had entered through a side door and climbed up onto the catwalk, and was now sidling along it towards Crezzi. The woman crept into cover near the bay door and readied her weapon, convinced something was moving outside but not knowing what or where.

End of turn 2: Something's out there. Fight played out in Roll20.

The razor, continuing to sneak closer to Crezzi, stumbled in the darkness and made a noise; the woman and Makavan both turned to look at the catwalk, but before they could see anything the razor fired a mental blast at the pair of them and everything went out of focus momentarily. It wasn't immediately clear where that had come from, but both of them assumed there was a razor somewhere on the catwalk. The woman blazed away in the general direction of the noise, and judging by the curses she hit something by pure luck.

End of turn 3: Failed mental blast, successful Suppressive Fire.

Simon hugged the wall, wondering what to do next, and heard a burst of fire from an automatic laser of some kind, followed by the thud of a collapsing body. When he risked an eye around the corner, he saw Adrasaia descending from the catwalk with a measured tread, Crezzi covered in laser burns, and the woman's body stretched out on the floor with enough of her head missing to make it hard to keep his last meal down.

Adrasaia reflexively pointed her laser SMG at him, but as he raised his hands and tried his best not to look a threat, she lowered it again.

"What did you do that for?" Makavan asked, in a much higher tone than he would've liked.

"I was hired to make sure he didn't tell what he knew," she said. "This was the easiest way to do it."

"Am I next?" he demanded, unsure whether to shoot Adrasaia or not. She thought for long enough that he was tempted to try it, but in the end said:

"No. I bugged you at the first meeting, I know he didn't tell you anything. If it became known that I killed everyone who worked for me, it would become difficult to hire anyone." He needed, he decided, to buy a new commlink; he'd changed his clothes since the first meeting, but like most people he kept the same commlink from one day to the next. Most likely Adrasaia had linked to his commlink once he'd accepted the job.

"Does that mean I get paid?" She considered this for a second.

"Yes. You did what you were asked to do. And again, if I get a reputation for not paying, it will become difficult to hire anyone. Paying you will also make it more likely that you accept future commissions." He nodded, acknowledging the point, but also relieved that he appeared to be an asset rather than a loose end.

Makavan considered asking what Crezzi had known that was worth killing for, but decided that if he knew, he would become worth killing. That would be a poor reward for his curiosity.

"Do we need to do anything about this?" He gestured at the bodies. Adrasaia considered for a heartbeat, as he was beginning to expect.

"Leave that to me," she said. "I do not think it is within your skill set."

Makavan took his payment, and left, while what remained of his composure was still intact.

Status at End April '01

• IRD/DRD: +5 (Find Job, now complete), +2 (successful further interaction). Total: +7. Two of the IRD came up 6, which would improve Rep if I were doing things that way and instead pushes Wealth up to d8.
• 5150 Stats: Rep: 5. Month IRD: 7. Lifetime IRD: 17.
• SWADE Stats: Bennies: Refresh to 3 at end of session. Wounds: 0. Advances: 1 at end of session - Simon takes the Ace Edge, useful for space combat. Wealth: d8.

GM Notes

This is a raid (5150NL p. 49). I need to resolve one PEF, which turns out to be a female Basic Shaker; I decide they are holding Crezzi hostage. The dice tell me this consists of one NPC with a non-lethal weapon; a Rep 4 Corporate Exec, in fact. That suggests it's night-time. Although immediately after that, the rules tell me to check page 29 to see what weapon the NPC is carrying; a P-1. I decide to liven things up a bit by having the razor follow Simon to the warehouse and lie in wait there. And we're off to the races.

• Turn 1: Exec KS, on Hold. Razor KD, on Hold. Simon 2C, tries to sneak closer; Stealth d4w = 2, failure, so both the exec and the razor realise he is there somewhere and start looking for him.
• Turn 2: Razor 8H, stealth closer to exec; d210 = 5; success; neither of the others is aware. Simon 8D, stealth closer; d4w = 2, now opposed by Exec d8 =1, fail (but not critical, I checked). Exec 2H moves into cover and readies weapon.
• Turn 3: Simon AH moves to and up stairs to bay; Stealth d4w = 5, opposed by Exec's Notice d8 = 7; she has him. Razor JS, Stealth d10 = 3 failure, Simon and Exec now aware, so she fires a medium template Stun at them both; d10 = 5, success. Exec rolls Vigour d8 = 10 and saves, Simon rolls Vigour d6w = 5 and saves. Exec takes a morale check, Spirit d8 = 6 so she's good, and lays down Suppressive Fire on the catwalk; d8 = 13, a Raise even with the mods for darkness and whatnot; but the damage bounces off the razor's armour.
• Turn 4: Simon 9S on Hold, razor 9H fires laser SMG at Crezzi; 4d10 = 2, 4, 5, 8; three hits on Crezzi (the one doing 13 damage kills him) and one on the Exec (innocent bystander, and with 27 damage it's Goodnight Vienna).

One thing real life has taught me is that you often never find out what the Hell was going on, and no-one currently has a good reason to explain things to Simon; so I don't need to work it out yet. The (game) world will tell me later, if it was important.

I've also realised that I miss tactical combat; the players in my group game avoid it if at all possible, and my interest in solo campaigns has always been centred on skirmish wargaming at least as much as the story linking the fights together. Need more fights!

Hmm. It also wouldn't hurt to zoom in close enough that you can read the labels on the tokens. Sorry!